Saturday, January 10, 2015

Should Jewish People have the right to buy or rent a home in any part of Jerusalem they choose?

Jerusalem has been the geographic heart and soul of Judaism for roughly 3,000 years — since the time King David made it his capital city.

And no other spot on Earth holds more meaning or sacred significance to the Jewish People than the Temple Mount, at the base of which the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) of the old Temple courtyard still stands.

The Temple Mount is where Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac in obedience until (foreshadowing the eventual coming of Messiah) God stopped him and provided a substitute sacrifice.

One thousand years later, King David purchased the threshing floor of Araunah on this spot (see 2 Samuel 24:24) and designated it to be the site for the Temple that would become a permanent habitation for the presence of God among the Jewish People.

It is the site of the Second Temple that stood in Yeshua’s (Jesus’) day — where the promised Messiah walked, taught, and worshipped.

Only the overwhelming force of invading armies have ever been able to drive the Jews from that rocky, sacred hill — and then, only temporarily. The Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, and finally the Muslim hoards have all tried.

But each time, the Jewish People have been drawn back to their historic, God-granted place of origin.

In other words, for 4,000 years, Jerusalem in general and the Temple Mount in particular have served as the geographic focal point for the Jewish People.

And yet, since 1948, it has been illegal for Israel’s Jewish citizens or pilgrims to pray on that site, lest delicate Muslim sensibilities be inflamed.

In fact, Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount have been forbidden to even move their lips, lest they quietly speak to God on the holiest ground known to Judaism.